


Foxes and Hounds

by plasma_in_ink



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Bad Ending, Bad things implied, Rarepair, Slavery, im so sorry sunny, not graphic, there for the dog
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:28:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24077509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plasma_in_ink/pseuds/plasma_in_ink
Summary: The sun always sets on the Legion's land.
Relationships: Vulpes Inculta/Sunny Smiles
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Foxes and Hounds

The guests at the Saloon was none of Sunny Smiles' business, and the intense young man that walked through the door was like any other in that respect... or he would be, if Cheyenne would take her eyes off of him for a hot second.

"What's up, girl?" Sunny said, petting her dog quietly. The dog accepted the pets, her ears twitching, and she did not growl or otherwise act aggressive - only stared, as the man went through to the bar. She’d never acted like this before, and Sunny couldn't figure it out. "Come on, girl," she said, slapping her thigh to summon the beast, hefting her rifle on her back. Cheyenne followed her through the door, but until he was out of sight, her dark and unreadable eyes never left the man.

Outdoors, however, the dog was her usual self, turning to her mistress and panting happily. Sunny gave her a reassuring scratch behind her ears and smiled.

"Howdy, Sunny!" Sunny turned to wave at Easy Pete, in his usual perch by the saloon. He was as good a barometer as any dog, and his smile - small but kind, like her dear old dad's - was as friendly as ever.

"Howdy!" she said, giving Cheyenne another pat. If Pete wasn’t worried then there was nothing to worry about. It was a beautiful Mojave day – hot as hell, but beautiful – and Sunny had work to do. The watering holes needed to be cleared of the usual varmints, after all, and who else was going to do it?

Sunny, that’s who – with a smile on her face.

***

Goodsprings was a very strategic position. The pass through the mountains to the North provided a straight shot to Vegas – past, also, a key NCR operation. It was also one of the few sources of fresh water this far South and West. One really did not have that anywhere else, until you reached the Colorado and the Dam.

Vulpes, of course, did not expect these hardworking settlers to immediately side with the Legion – but they were few in number, not well defended, and… scrappy. When the legion marched through, they would see which side their bannock was buttered. They could bring the wrong end of a rifle and a goodly sum of explosives to bear, and had clearly defended their little home against the dangers of the wasteland. They fought for what they had. But, against even a small troupe of Legion recruits… No, these people too smart to fight the tide. These settlers would offer no resistance, especially if he softened them first with sugared words.

The saloonkeeper, Trudy, was one of the key people to sugar – a very hospitable woman. No whore, not like the ill-fated fools in Nipton, soon to be punished as an example to their degenerate kin. No, this was a woman of principle, intelligent and head of this town. Her reaction to the Legion capturing her town and water source would be key to the benefits the Legion could gain. After all, Vulpes felt, hardworking settlers should remain hardworking settlers, coaxing sustenance out of rock and sand. Her execution would cause more harm than gain – better to break the strong to the yoke than slaughter them. After all, their hands were well-suited to feed and water the Bull.

The Saloonkeeper, he sensed, could be worked on and would see things his way eventually, with careful cultivation. However, plainly, it was not Trudy alone that needed to harbor the seeds of submission. To reduce the number of people he would need to cull, two others in particular needed to be convinced: the doctor on the hill and the old prospector on the patio. They sounded like they would be willful and difficult, but, the _frumentarii_ had found, once a few were convinced of the rightness of his cause, others would follow suit.

That left Sunny Smiles, town huntress and protector and a very well-liked settler, on the top of his list to convince. _A sweet girl,_ was how Trudy had described her – the sweet ones were always easy pickings for the charismatic young man.

***

Sunny watched as the gecko scurried off. “Yeah, you run!” she said, gathering up the bodies of its two bigger companions. They’d give some good meat and hides – and this water hole was safe for using again. “Not bad, eh Chey?” she said, turning to her dog, and then turning to look at where the dog stared, intently, into the towering boulders that shaded the springs. The man from before stood there, watching her. “Howdy!” she called to him, waving, “It’s safe to drink now, if that’s what you wanted!”

“Oh?” The man approached her, Cheyenne’s eyes never leaving him. Other than the slight movement of her head as she followed him, the dog might well have been a statue – not a muscle moved as she stood at attention. Just watching.

 _Weird._ Thought Sunny.

“Yep – Just scared off the geckos here, so you shouldn’t have any issues! Just turn that pump and you’ll get good, clean water out of it.” Gecko corpses secured; she checked her rifle. All in good condition, full of ammo, and ready to roll again. “I’m headed out, so take care of yourself.”

“Mind if I come along?” he asked, with a smile that made her tingle just a little bit.

“Sure,” she said. You couldn’t say no to that kind of smile, “Not sure what would interest a spiffy traveler like yourself, though. I’m just checking the other pumps, shooting some beasties, you know how it is!”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m just stretching my legs.”

 _After just coming in from the wasteland?_ Sunny thought, but hey, why not? She could always use more company. “All right,” she said, as Cheyenne followed her almost reluctantly, “You here in Goodsprings for long, stranger?”

“Not too long. Only enough to restock and rest up.”

“You headed for Vegas, or elsewhere?” A lot of people came through for Vegas, even though the pass North wasn’t always a good call. There were all sorts of beasties up there that no one wanted to tangle with – and Fiends besides – but with NCR’s presence at the quarry, the way could be clear sometimes.

“Sloan, actually,”

Sunny nodded. “Fair enough,” she said, “Less likely to lose all your money up there, haha!” she said, laughing, “More likely to make it.”

“Yes, that’s what I was thinking. There’s a business opportunity up there, one that might be very… profitable.”

Something about the way he said that felt a little odd, but Sunny generally found businesspeople odd. Her Momma always said that it took a particular head to run a business right – her Pa had been one, and he’d been an asshole… but he’d kept them fed and warm on the chilly desert nights and she’d turned out a good shot with a varmint rifle, so why should she complain? “Well, good luck to you on whatever you’ve got cooking up there!” she said cheerily, “Just watch out – there’s some mighty nasty critters up there.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said.

As they walked towards the next pump station, Sunny felt Cheyenne lean against her leg slightly, as if to get closer. _Odd…_

“That’s a very fine dog you have there. Where did you get her?”

“Oh, Cheyenne?” she pat her dog’s head, “I’ve had her for ages – my dad was in the breeding business. Bought her grandmama and her grandpappy from some traders, and he bred them up. She’s a good dog – got a bit of hound in her, but he was breeding for hunting and smarts. Her ma came from that litter, and her pappy was half mutt, half one of those old-world police dogs.”

“It sounds like your father was an excellent dog breeder – I can see the intelligence in her eyes.”

“Sure – I’d recommend you to him, but last I heard, he was run out of the Hub for some reason. Pissed off the wrong person, I think. No idea where his dogs are, either,” Sunny said, “Just glad I’ve got Cheyenne. She’s a good girl.” Cheyenne broke her staring at the man to look up at Sunny, accepting a scratch on the nose, “A really good girl.”

“That she is,” said the man, “that she is. Maybe I should get into the business, if such a fine specimen was bred in just three generations.”

“Sure, I guess. I don’t feel like breeding her yet – she doesn’t seem to feel up to it, neither.” Sunny said, squinting into the sun, “She’ll have pups when she’s ready.”

The man was silent, and Sunny, spotting a gecko, took aim to protect her Goodsprings from the threat she could see.

***

Cheyenne, though, saw a different threat, but wasn’t sure what she was seeing. The human looked like any other, smelled like any other. Bloody, sure, but few weren’t in this world. Kill or be killed, dog-eat-dog, she was lucky she had such a fine human with her who didn’t think of her as a meal.

This one, though, had hungry eyes. Cold eyes. He made the dog think of that nightstalker loner that they’d had to scare off from the bighorner pens. He didn’t have knives or guns – just the pitiful teeth and claws that humans were ‘gifted’ with, so the danger wasn’t overt.

But there was something about him that made the dog’s hairs twitch and made her not want to take her eyes off of him. Something shifty. Something off.

The second time he visited, he spoke to her human in sweet tones, made her human laugh and giggle, but Cheyenne knew better – she never took her eyes off of him. The dog didn’t know what it all meant, and she didn’t like it – yet there was no reason to bare her fangs or bark. It was, after all, just a slight feeling, and he didn’t _do_ anything.

Not until the day he came in armor and a bloody sword, and tore her home asunder. Then, the dog did bark.

But then it was too late.

***

His business in Sloan was indeed very profitable. The prison had exploded (almost literally,) in exactly the way he’d been expecting and then, with the right lures, the quarry the NCR relied on had been rendered too dangerous to operate. The Bear’s throat was being choked, bit by bit, and Vulpes was the one tightening the noose.

The time for invasion came and, like an arrow loosed from a bow, the legion’s forces pierced through the desert and destroyed all opposition. The NCR expected the dam – they did not expect the Legion to strike at the highway or the little independent towns. Resistance against the armed and armored forces of the legion was futile – town after town on the old highway was forced to join or die.

When the Legion struck the south, Vulpes could see that, for all his efforts, he had not conquered the settler’s rugged spirit. The man with the dynamite especially – he took out several of Vulpes’ best men before they put him down – a noble end for any profligate. Vulpes displayed his head on a pike to honor him, burning the body in a great body pile at the eastward entrance of town. Trudy and the doctor fled, but they were hunted down. Trudy spat on his mercy, so Vulpes left her to his men to beat and have their way with her as they pleased. She was then tied to the flagpole just outside her saloon, so she could watch it fall into his hands. Whether she survived long enough to see it with the gaping wound at her torso did not matter. The doctor, on the other hand, took to slavery almost mechanically, and Vulpes was glad to have capable medical hands in his unit, now.

After the first few crucifixions and the battle with the dynamite man, the taking of Goodsprings was very smooth. Smoother still because he did not sack it. The homes and fields remained intact – but his. Overnight, the independent frontier town and its people became another part of the Bull. Even without rampaging and looting, there were still plenty of spoils to be had – and he took his own spoils of war joyfully as he secured the place against the NCR’s incursions.

He was only minorly interested in women, but Sunny Smiles, though pretty enough, wasn’t really what he was after. She’d sniped a few of his men from the rooftops, but was no soldier – she hadn’t been difficult to capture. Normally, he would have executed her for her resistance, but, as her fine dog barked and snarled at the end of a handler’s lead, he felt it would be a waste to destroy both. He could tolerate keeping her, if it meant he could fulfil his end of the bargain he would make with her beast.

He bent down to Cheyenne’s eye level, crouching easily on the ground. “I won’t hurt her,” he said soothingly, “But only if you are a very good girl, do you understand?” Vulpes had great faith in the wisdom of dogs, and he could see that this bitch was very wise – and very loyal. The fine specimen – almost as fine as the famous Lupa but far more disciplined and even-natured – had been on his mind from the moment he’d seen her. He needed to have her, and if that meant he had to have her mistress too, that was not an issue for him.

“You will obey my commands. You will be my companion. Every night, I will permit you to sleep with the woman, but then you will return to my side. Do you understand?” Of course, no dog truly fully understood the language of humans, but Vulpes felt that an understanding did pass between them. Cheyenne understood enough.

“Good.” He said, as his men hauled his new _wife_ to his tent. Cheyenne turned to watch, her eyes locked on Sunny Smiles, now Sunny the slave, and whined softly. But she did not move. She shuddered once, but was still and remained by his side. _Oh yes, she understood._

“Good girl.”

**Author's Note:**

> The fift of my attempts to create a few rarepair fics for Fallout New Vegas. My goal was to play with unusual pairings with the courier playing as little a role as possible.
> 
> This is my least favorite - but I didn't want all of my rarepairs to be happy. I think this could be explored in other ways - Vulpes' slimy cunning pairs interestingly with Sunny's bright naivete - but I don't think I will be the one to write it. I know that Mr. Fox has his fans, and I understand why, but I am not one of them. 
> 
> In this case, I accepted the canon (or, something I thought I saw long ago,) that Vulpes is actually a closeted gay man. He'll take a slave wife, but he's more interested in having a cool dog (as a pet / war companion) and maybe using her to improve the war dog stock. He does not, at least in this continuity, like animals "in that way," despite the joking characterization as a furry. Still, Foxes and Hounds does not end well for Sunny or Cheyenne... or anyone in Goodsprings, let's be honest.
> 
> However, the Legion does not necessarily win - though they invade a good bit of the wasteland, I left the outcome of the battle at the dam ambiguous, as well as the courier's input. It's very possible that the NCR or House's forces took the dam and will proceed to reclaim the Mojave from the more tenuous hold of the Legion. There is some hope for Sunny and her dog to be rescued - though not much. More likely, she will be taken away or killed in a retreat, leaving Goodsprings a ravaged ghost town.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading... and keep an eye out for more rarepair works in the future! Less miserable ones, more weird ones - I promise.


End file.
